Keimena #2: Sleepless Nights Storiesby Jonas Mekas

Sleepless Nights Stories originated from my reading of the One Thousand and One Nights. While my stories, unlike the Arabian tales, are all from the real life, they too, at some points wander into somewhere else, beyond the everyday routine reality.

There are some twenty-five different stories in my movie. Their protagonists are all my good friends and I myself am an inseparable part of the stories. The teller of the Arabian tales was also part of his, or her tales.

Some of the people in the movie you’ll recognize, some not. The fact that some of them you’ll recognize has no bearing on the stories: after all, we all recognize John Wayne or Annette Benning, but in their stories they are no longer the people you know.

The subjects of the stories cover a wide range of emotions, geographies, personal anguishes, anecdotes. These are not very big stories, not for the Big Screen: these are all personal big stories… And yes, you’ll also find some provocations… But that’s me, one “me” of many. The very question what is a story, is a provocative question.